[1] The title, I suppose, of "Cuckold."
[2] Tacitus in a few words gives a most masterly description of Poppea:
--"Huic mulieri cuncta alia fuere praeter honestum animum: quippe
mater eius, aetatis suae feminas pulchritudine supergressa, gloriam
pariter et formam dederat: opes claritudini generis sufficiebant: sermo
comis, nec absurdum ingenium: modestiam praeferre et lascivia uti: rarus
in publicum egressus, idque velata parte oris, ne satiaret aspectum, vel
quia sic decebat. Famae numquam pepercit, maritos et adulteros non
distinguens, neque affectui suo aut alieno obnoxia: unde utilitas
ostenderetur, illuc libidinem transtulit."--Ann. XIII. 45.
[3] 4to. Why? Is he rais'd.
[4] Cf. Dion Cassius, [Greek: X G] 20.
[5] 4to. cleare th'ayre.
[6] "Push" and "pish" are used indifferently by Elizabethan writers.
[7] Cf. Verg. Aen. vi. 805-6:--
"Nec qui pampineis victor iuga flectit habenis,
Liber, agens celso Nysae de vertice tigres."
[8] 4to. Turpuus. (Vid. Sueton. Vit. Ner. 20.)
[9] Tacitus (Ann. xvi. 14) mentions an astrologer of this name, who was
banished by Nero.
[10] Vid. Sueton. Vit. Ner. 25.
[11] 4tos. _Servinus_.
[12] Tacit. Ann. xv. 49.
[13] By those "wicked armes" is meant, I suppose, the struggle between
Caesar and Pompey. Posterity will think the horrors of civil war
compensated by the pleasure of reading Lucan's epic!
[14] 4tos. Ciria.
[15] 4tos. beeds.
[16] 4tos. begins.
[17] A certain Volusius Proculus was one of the infamous agents in the
murder of Agrippina, and afterwards betrayed the fearless woman
Epicharis who confided to him the secret of Piso's conspiracy; but no
one of this name was executed by Nero.
[18] Quy. How! bruised, &c.
[19] Quy. Say that I had no skill!--If the reading of the 4tos. is right
the meaning must be, "As for his saying that I had no skill."
[20] A copy of the 1633 4to. gives "shoulder-eac't," which is hardly
less intelligible than the reading in the text. Everybody knows that
Pelops received an ivory shoulder for the one that was consumed; but the
word "shoulder-packt" conveys no meaning. "Shoulder-pieced," i.e.,
"fitted with an (ivory) shoulder," would be a shade more intelligible;
but it is a very ugly compound.
[21] Dion Cassius ([Greek: XB]. 14. ed. Bekker) reports this brutal gibe
of Nero's; Rubellius Plautus was the luckless victim:--[Greek: "ho de
dae Neron kai gelota kai skommata, ta ton syngenon kaka hepoieito ton
goun Plauton apokteinas, hepeita taen kephalaen autou prosenechtheisan oi
idon, 'ouk haedein,' hephae 'oti megalaen rina eichen,' osper pheisamenos
an autou ei touto proaepistato."]
[22] Persius' tutor, immortalised in his pupil's Fifth Satire.
[23] Quy. with.
[24] _Machlaean_--a word coined from [Greek: machlos] (sc. libidinosus).
[25] Partly a translation from Persius, Sat. I. 11. 99-102:--
"Torva Mimalloneis implerunt cornua bombis,
Et raptum vitulo caput ablatura superbo
Bassaris, et lyncem Maenas flexura corymbis
Euion ingeminat: reparabilis assonat Echo";
which lines are supposed to be a parody of some verses of Nero. Persius'
comment--
"summa delumbe saliva
Hoc natat: in labris et in udo est Maenas et Attis;
Nec pluteum caedit, nec demorsos sapit ungues"--
agrees with the judgment of Tacitus (Ann. xiv. 16). Suetonius (Vit. Ner.
52), who had seen some of Nero's MSS., speaks of the extreme care that
had been given to correction; and the few verses preserved by Seneca
make against the estimate of Tacitus and Persius.
[26] 4tos. Ennion.
[27] Vid. Dion Cassius [Greek: XB]. 29.
[28] 4tos. conductors.
[29] 4tos. again.
[30] Cf. Tacitus, Ann. xv. 48.
[31] The 4to. points the passage thus:--
"The thing determinde on our meeting now,
Is of the meanes, and place, due circumstance,
As to the doing of things t'is requir'd,
So done, it names the action."
The words "t'is requir'd ... action," I take to mean, "The assassination
must be accomplished in such a way as to appear an act of patriotism and
make the actors famous."
[32] Cf. Tacitus, Ann. xv. 52
[33] Cf. Sueton. Vit. Ner. 49:--"Mirum et vel praecipue notabile inter
haec fuerit, nihil eum patientius quam maledicta et convitia hominum
tulisse, neque in ullos lemorem quam qui se dictis aut carminibus
lucessissent exstitisse. Multa Graece Latineque proscripta aut vulgata
sunt, sicut illa:--
* * * * *
_Roma domus fiet: Veios migrate Quirites, Si non et
Veios occupat ista domus_."
[34] 4tos. _Servi_.
[35] 4tos. Servinus.
[36] Cf. Tac. Ann. xvi. 5; and Sueton. Vit Ner. 23.
[37] 4to. time.
[38] Cf. Sueton. Vit. Ner. 23. "Itaque et enixae quaedam in spectaculis
dicuntur, et multi taedio audiendi laudandique, clausis oppidorum
portis, aut furtim desiluisse de muro aut morte simulata funere elati."
[39] 4tos. And.
[40] The 4tos. give "_Agrippa_," which is nonsense. By a slip of the
tongue, Nero was going to say "Agrippina's death," when he hastily
corrected himself. Tacitus and Suetonius tell us that Nero was always
haunted with the memory of his murdered mother.
[41] Cf. Tacitus, Ann. xvi. 5. "Ferebantque Vespasianum, tamquam somno
conniveret, a Phoebo liberto increpitum aegreque meliorum precibus
obtectum, mox imminentem perniciem maiore fato effugisse."
[42] 4tos. _Ile_.
[43] 4to. 1624. innocents.
[44] Cf. Tacitus, Ann. xvi. 4.
[45] 4to. I'd.
[46] 4to. 1624. Aegamemnon.
[47] This magnificent speech is quoted in Charles Lamb's _Specimens_.
[48] 4tos. I'd.
[49] "Nec quisquam defendere audebat, crebris multorum minis restinguere
prohibentium, et quia alii palam faces iaciebant atque esse sibi
auctorem vociferabantur, sive ut raptus licentius exercerent, seu
jussu."--Tac. Ann. xv. 37.
[50] The simile is from Vergil, Aen. ii. 304-308--
"In segetem veluti quum flamma furentibus Austris
Incidit; aut rapidus montano flumine torrens
Sternit agros, sternit sata laeta boumque labores,
Praecipitesque trahit silvas: stupet inscius alto
Accipiens sonitum saxi de vertice pastor."
[51] The author may have had in his mind a passage in Dion Cassius'
description of the fire:--[Greek: thorybos te oun exaisios pantachou
pantas katelambanen, kai dietrichon ohi men tae ohi de tae hosper
emplaektoi, kai allois tines epamynontes epynthanonto ta oikoi kaiomena
kai heteroi prin kai akousai hoti ton spheteron ti empepraestai,
emanthanon, hoti apololen. XB. 16].
[52] 4tos. _Cannos_.
[53] 4tos. _Allius_.
[54] The 4tos. give "thee gets." I feel confident that my emendation
restores the true reading.
[55] The reading of the 4tos. is the, "The most condemned," &c. A tribe
named the "Moschi" (of whom mention is made in Herodotus) dwelt a little
to the south of the Colchians.
[56] So the 4tos. "Low hate" is nonsense. "_Long_ and native hate" would
be spiritless; while "_bow and arrow laid_ apart" involves far too
violent a change. I reluctantly give the passage up.
[57] I suppose that the sentence is left unfinished; but perhaps it is
more likely that the text is corrupt.
[58] Quy. I now command the _Souldiery i'the Citie_.
[59] Sc. descendants. Vid. Nares, s.v.
[60] Cf. Tacitus, Ann. xv. 53.
[61] 4tos. losse.
[62] 4tos. soft.
[63] Quy. they.--The passage, despite its obscurity of expression,
seems to me intelligible; but I dare not venture to paraphrase it.
[64] 4tos. are we.
[65] "Call me cut" meant commonly nothing more than Falstaff's "call
me horse"; but as applied to Sporus the term "cutt-boy" was literally
correct. For what follows in the text cf. Sueton. Vit. Ner. cap. 28.
[66] 4to. Subius, Flavius.
[67] Quy. "I, [sc. aye] to himselfe; 'twould make the matter
cleare," &c.
[68] 4tos. _Gallii_. Our author is imitating Juvenal
(Sat. x. ll. 99-102):--
"Huius qui trahitur praetextam sumere mavis,
An Fidenarum Gabiorumque esse potestas
Et de mensura ius dicere, vasa minora
Frangere, pannosus vacuis Aedilis Ulubris?"
[69] Cf. Tacitus, Annals, xv. 59.
[70] 4tos. refuge.
[71] Quy. _Euphrates_.
[72] According to Tacitus, Piso retired to his house and there opened
his veins. Vid. Ann. xv. 59.
[73] Cf. Shakespeare, "Make mad the guilty and appal the free."
Hamlet, II. 2.
[74] So the 4tos; but Quy.
"The Emperour's much pleas'd
_That_ some have named _Seneca_."
[75] Cf. Tacitus, Ann. xv. 45; Sueton. Vit. Ner. 32.
[76] In Tacitus' account (Ann. xv. 67) the climax is curious:--
"'Oderam te,' inquit; 'nec quisquam tibi fidelior militum fuit dum
amari meruisti: odisse coepi, postquam parricida matris et uxoris,
auriga et histrio et incendiarius extitisti.'"
[77] The verses would run better thus:--
"A feeling one; _Tigellinus_, bee't thy charge,
And let me see thee witty in't.
_Tigell_. Come, sirrah;
Weele see." &c.
[78] Quy. was oreheard to say.
[79] 4tos. your.
[80] Quy. even skies.
[81] Quy. I'the firmament.
[82] 4tos. loath by.
[83] Martial, in a clever but coarse epigram (lib. xi. 56), ridicules
the Stoic's contempt of death:--
"Hanc tibi virtutem fracta facit urceus ansa,
Et tristis nullo qui tepet igne focus,
Et teges et cimex et nudi sponda grabati,
Et brevis atque eadem nocte dieque toga.
O quam magnus homo es, qui faece rubentis aceti
Et stipula et nigro pane carere potes.
* * * * *
Rebus in angustis facile est contemnere vitam:
Fortiter ille facit qui miser esse potest."
[84] Cf. Juv. Sat. v. 36, 37:--
"Quale coronati Thrasea Helvidiusque bibebant,
Brutorum et Cassi natalibus."
The younger Pliny (Ep. iii. 7) relates that Eilius Italicus religiously
observed Vergil's birthday.
[85] The 4tos. punctuate thus:--
"Here faire _Enanthe_, whose plumpe ruddy cheeke
Exceeds the grape, it makes this; here my geyrle."
Petronius is speaking hurriedly. He begins to answer _Enanthe's_
question: "it makes this" (i.e. "means this"), he says, but breaks off
his explanation, and pledges his mistress.
[86] 4tos. walles.
[87] 4tos. Ith.
[88] "Non cuivis homini contingit adire Corinthum." Horat. Epist. i. 17,
36 ([Greek: ou pantos andros es Korinthon esth' ho plous]).
[89] Quy. Th'old _Anicean_ (sc. Anacreon).
[90] A paraphrase of Horace's well-known lines:
"Linquenda tellus, et domus, et placens
Uxor; neque harum, quas colis, arborum,
Te, praeter invisas cupressos,
Ulla brevem dominum sequeter."
--Odes, ii. 14, ll. 21-29.
[91] 4to. your.
[92] 4tos. thy.
[93] Cf. Horace, Od. i. 12, ll. 37, 38:--
"Regulum, et Scauros _animaeque magnae
Prodigum_ Paulum."
[94] Vid. Tacitus, Ann. xi. 11; Sueton. Vit. Ner. 6.
[95] 4tos. have.
[96] 4tos. night.
[97] The punning on the fairies' names recalls Bottom's pleasantries
(M.N.D. iii. 1), and the resemblance is certainly too close to be
accidental.
[98] "Uncoth" here = wild, unfrequented; Cf. _As You Like It_, ii. 6,
"If this _uncouth_ forest yield anything savage," &c.
[99] A "Hunts up" was a hunting song, a réveillée, to rouse the hunters.
An example of a "_Hunts up_" may be found, set to music by J. Bennet, in
a collection of Ravenscroft, 1614.
[100] Quy. "kind;" but our author is not very particular about his
rhymes.
[101] "Rascal" was the regular name for a lean deer (_As You like It_,
iii. 3, &c.).
[102] The whole scene is printed as verse in the 4to.
[103] This very uncommon word (French: légèreté) occurs in _Henry V_.
(iv. i. l. 23).
[104] More commonly written "cote," a cottage.
[105] To "draw dry foot" meant to follow by the scent.
(_Com. of Errors_, iv. 2.)
[106] No doubt the writer had in his mind the description of
"Morpheus house" in the _Faerie Queene_ (Book i., Canto I).
[107] "Whisht" (more commonly "whist") = hushed, stilled. Cf. Milton,
_Ode on the Nativity_:--
"The winds with wonder _whist_
Smoothly the waters kist."
[108] "Plancher" (Fr. planche) = a plank. Cf. _Arden of Feversham_,
I. i. "Whilst on the _planchers_ pants his weary body," Shakespeare
(_Measure for Measure_, iv. 1) has "a _planched_ gate."
[109] "Incontinent" = immediately. The expression is very common
(_Richard II_., v. 6, &c.).
[110] These verses and Frisco's "Can you blow the little horne"? are
evidently fragments of Old Ballads--to be recovered, let us hope,
hereafter.
[111] These four lines are from the old ballad of _Fortune my foe_,
which will be found printed entire in the _Bagford Ballads_ (Ed. J.W.
Ebsworth, part iv. pp. 962-3); the music is given in Mr. W. Chappell's
_Popular Music of the Olden Time_, I. 162. Mr. Ebsworth writes me:--
"I have ascertained (assuredly) that what I at first thought to be a
reference to 'Fortune my foe' in the Stationers' Registers, 1565-66,
entered to John Charlewood (_Arber's Transcripts_, l. 310), as 'of one
complaining of ye mutabilitie of Fortune' is _not_ 'Fortune my foe,' but
one of Lempill's ballads, printed by R. Lekpriwicke (_sic_), and still
extant in the Huth Collections--the true title being 'Ane Complaint vpon
Fortoun;' beginning 'Inconstant world, fragill and friuolus.'"
[112] Nares quotes from Chapman's _May Day_, "Lord, how you roll in your
_rope-ripe_ terms." Minshew explains the word as "one ripe for a rope,
or for whom the gallows groans." I find the expression "to rowle in
their ropripe termes" in William Bullein's rare and curious "Dialogue
both pleasaunt and pietiful," 1573, p. 116.
[113] A very common term for a pimp.
[114] "Bale of dice"--a pair of dice; the expression occurs in the
_New Inn_, I. 3, &c.
[115] This song is set to music in an old collection by Ravenscroft,
1614.
[116] More usually written "mammets," i.e., puppets (_Rom. & Jul_.
iii. 5; though, no doubt, in _Hen. IV_., ii. 3, Gifford was right
in connecting the word with Lat. mamma).
[117] Cf. Drayton's _Fairy Wedding_:--
"Besides he's deft and wondrous airy,
And of the noblest of the fairy!
Chiefe of the Crickets of much fame
In fairy a most ancient name."
So in _Merry Wives_, v. 5, l. 47.
[118] Quy. What kind o' God, &c.
[119] "There is a kind of crab-tree also or _wilding_ that in like
manner beareth twice a yeare." Holland's Plinie, b. xvi.
[120] "Assoyle" usually = _absolve_; here _resolve, explain_.
[121] The italics are my own, as I suppose that the four lines were
intended to be sung.
[122] 4to. It is, it is not, &c.
[123] The sense of "fine, rare," rather than that of "frequent,
abundant" (as Nares explains), would seem to suit the passages in
Shakespeare and elsewhere where the word is used colloquially.
[124] "Sib" = akin. Possibly the word still lingers in the North
Country: Sir Walter Scott uses it in the _Antiquary_, &c.
[125] "Wonning" sc. dwelling (Germ. wohnen). Spenser frequently uses
the word.
[126] A Spenserian passage (as Mr. Collier has pointed out): vid. F.Q.,
B. 2. C. xii. 71.
[127] 4to. then.
[128] 4to. And here she woman.
[129] "Caul" = part of a lady's head-dress: "reticulum crinale vel
retiolum," Withals' Dictionarie, 1608 (quoted by Nares).
[130] "The battaile. The Combattantes Sir Ambrose Vaux, knight, and
Glascott the Bayley of Southwarke: the place the Rule of the Kings
Bench."
[131] In some copies the name "John Kirke" is given in full.
[132] _Bottom_ = a ball of worsted. George Herbert in a letter to his
mother says: "Happy is he whose _bottom_ is wound up, and laid ready
for work in the New Jerusalem." So in the _Virgin Martyr_ (v. 1),--"I,
before the Destinies my _bottom_ did wind up, would flesh myself once
more upon some one remarkable above all these."
[133] 4to. your.
[134] Cf. the catalogue of torments in the _Virgin Martyr_ (v. 1).
[135] The 4to prints the passage thus:--
"I have now livd my full time;
Tell me, my _Henricke_, thy brave successe,
That my departing soule
May with thy story," &c.
Several times further on I shall have to alter the irregular arrangement
of the 4to in order to restore the blank verse; but I shall not think it
necessary to note the alteration.
[136] 4to, Horne.
[137] 4to, Aloft.
[138] The 4to gives '_The_ further,' and in the next line
'_Or_ further.'
[139] The whole of this scene is printed as verse in the 4to. I have
printed the early part as prose, that the reader's eye may not be
vexed by metrical monstrosities.
[140] Sharpe i.e. sword. Vid. Halliwell's Dictionary.
[141] 4to. field.
[142] Sir Thomas Browne in _Vulgar Errors_ (Book 2, cap. 5) discusses
this curious superstition at length:--'And first we hear it in every
mouth, and in many good authors read it, that a diamond, which is the
hardest of stones, not yielding unto steel, emery, or any thing but its
own powder, is yet made soft, or broke by the blood of a goat. Thus much
is affirmed by Pliny, Solinus, Albertus, Cyprian, Austin, Isidore, and
many Christian writers: alluding herein unto the heart of man, and the
precious blood of our Saviour, who was typified by the goat that was
slain, and the scape goat in the wilderness: and at the effusion of
whose blood, not only the hard hearts of his enemies relented, but the
stony rocks and veil of the temple were shattered,' &c.
[143] The expression, to 'carry coals' (i.e. to put up with insults) is
too common to need illustration.
[144] 4to. deaths prey. The change restores the metre.
[145] 'Owe' for 'own' is very common in Shakespeare.
[146] The 4to. prints this scene throughout as verse.
[147] 'Larroones,' from Fr. _larron_ (a thief). Cf. Nabbes' _Bride_,
iii. 3. 'Remercie, Monsieur. Voe call a me Cooke now! de greasie
_Larone_!'
[148] Quy. rogues.
[149] Quy. had. There seems to be a reference to Stephen's martyrdom
described in _The Acts_.
[150] "Black Jack" and "bombard" were names given to wide leathern
drinking-vessels.
[151] A term in venery.
[152] A hound's chaps were called "flews".
[153] 'Sparabiles,' nails used by shoemakers. Nares quotes Herrick:
Cob clouts his shoes, and, as the story tells,
His thumb-nailes par'd afford him sperrables.'
The word is of uncertain derivation.
[154] 4to. recovering.
[155] 'Champion' is the old form of 'champain.'
[156] 'Diet-bread' was the name given to a sort of sweet seedcake:
Vid. Nares' Glossary.
[157] Quy. Oh! what cold, famine, &c.
[158] For an account of the "bezoar nut" and the Unicorn's horn vid.
Sir Thomas Browne's "Vulgar Errors," book iii. cap. xxiii.
[159] Vid. Liddell and Scott, s.v. [Greek: hypostasis].
[160] Sc. diaphoretick ([Greek: diaphoraetikos]), causing perspiration.
[161] _Rabby Roses_ is no doubt a corruption of _Averroes_, the famous
editor of Aristotle, and author of numerous treatises on theological and
medical subjects.
[162] Sir Thomas Browne (_Vulgar Errors_, I. vii.) quotes from Pierius
another strange cure for a scorpion's bite, "to sit upon an ass with
one's face towards his tail, for so the pain leaveth the man and passeth
into the beast."
[163] "Bandogs" (or, more correctly speaking, "band-dogs")--dogs that
had to be kept chained on account of their fierceness.
[164] (4to): men.
[165] 'Carbonardoed'--cut into collops for grilling: a common
expression.
[166] 'Rochet.'
"A linen vest, like a surplice, worn by bishops, under their satin
robes. The word, it is true, is not obsolete, nor the thing disused, but
it is little known."--Nares. ("Lent unto thomas Dowton, the 11 of Aprel
1598, to bye tafitie to macke a _Rochet_ for the beshoppe in earlle good
wine, xxiiii s." Henslowe's Diary, ed. Collier, p. 122.)
[167] (4to): by.
[168] The word "portage" occurs in a difficult passage of
_Pericles_, iii. 1,--
"Even at the first
Thy loss is more than can thy _portage_ quit
With all thou canst find here."
If there be no corruption in the passage of _Pericles_, the meaning can
only be (as Steevens explained) "thy safe arrival at the port of life."
Our author's use of the word "portage" is even more perplexing than
Shakespeare's; "Thy portion" would give excellent sense; but, with the
passage of _Pericles_ before us, we cannot suppose that there is a
printer's error. [In _Henry V_. 3, i, we find 'portage' for
'port-holes.']
[169] Quy. ever?
[170] The subst. _mouse_ is sometimes found as an innocent term of
endearment, but more often in a wanton sense (like the Lat. passer).
[171] 'Felt locks'--matted locks, commonly called "elf-locks": the
various forms "felted," "felter'd" and "feutred" are found.
[172] 'Stavesucre' (said to be a corruption of [Greek: staphis]. and
usually written 'Staves-acre') a kind of lark-spur considered
efficacious in destroying lice. Cf. Marlowe's _Dr. Faustus_ (i. 4)--
'Stavesacre? that's good to kill vermin; then belike, if I serve you,
I shall be lousy.'
[173] Quy. early-rioting.
[174] Ought we to read 'fins'? Webster (_Duchess of Malfi_, ii. 1) has
the expression the '_fins_ of her eye-lids'; it is found also in the
_Malcontent_ (i. 1), The confusion between the 'f' and the long 's' is
very common.
[175] Shakespeare uses the verb 'fang' (_Timon of Athens_, iv. 3) in the
sense of 'seize, clutch.'
[176] Varlet--'the serjeant-at-mace to the city counters was so called,'
Halliwell (who, however, gives no instance of this use).
[177] 'Trunk-hose' wide breeches stuffed with wool, &c.
[178] I can make nothing of this verse: the obscurity is not at all
removed by putting a comma after 'rules.' Doubtless the passage is
corrupt.
[179] _Our rest we set_ in pleasing, &c., i.e., we have made up our
mind to please. The metaphor is taken from primero (a game, seemingly,
not unlike the Yankee 'poker'), where to 'set up rest' meant to stand
on one's cards; but the expression was also used in a military sense.
Vid: Furness' Variorum Shakesp., _Rom. & Iul_., iv. 5.
[180] In Vol. IX. of the _Transactions of the Royal Historical Society_
is an elaborate paper (since reprinted for private circulation) by the
Rev. F.G. Fleay 'On the Actor Lists, 1538-1642.' The learned writer
tells us nothing new about Samuel Rowley; but his essay well deserves
a careful study.
[181] Quy. a _fury's_ face.
[182] 'Lacrymae'--one of the many allusions to John Dowland's musical
work of that name.
[183] 'Laugh and lay down' (more usually written 'lie down') was the
name of a game at cards. A prose-tract by 'C.T.,' published in 1605, is
entitled 'Laugh and Lie Down: or the World's Folly.' The expression, it
need hardly be said, is often used in a wanton sense.
[184] 4to. joyes.
[185] Quy. prove.
[186] Much of this scene is found, almost word for word, in colloquy 4
of John Day's _Parliament of Bees_.
[187] One of the characters in the _New Inn_ is Fly, 'the Parasite of
the Inn'; and in the _Virgin Martyr_ (ii. 2) we also find the word 'fly'
used (like Lat. musca) for an inquisitive person. In the text I suspect
we should read 'fly-about' for flye-boat.
[188] 'Blacke gard' was the name given to the lowest drudges who rode
amongst the pots and pans in royal processions: vid. Gifford's _Jonson_,
II. 169.
[189] The compositor seems to have been dozing: the word 'Vaw' points to
the reading 'Vaward,' and probably the passage ran--'this the Vaward,
this the Rearward.'
[190] 'Totter'd' i.e. tatter'd. Cf. _Richard II_. (iii. 3) 'the castle's
totter'd battlements' (the reading of the 4to.; the Folios give
'tatter'd'). In _King John_ (v. 5) I think, with Staunton, that the
expression 'tott'ring colours' means 'drooping colours' rather than, as
usually explained, 'tattered.'
[191] 'Spurn-point--An old game mentioned in a curious play called
_Apollo Shroving_, 12mo., Lond. 1627, p. 49.' Halliwell.
[192] 'Grandoes'--I find the word so spelt in Heywood's _A Challenge for
Beauty_--'I, and I assure your Ladiship, ally'de to the best Grandoes of
_Spaine_.' (_Works_, v. 18.)
[193] 4to. _Albia_.
[194] Cornego is telling the Captain to 'duck'--to make his bow--to
Onaelia.
[195] Nares quotes from the _Owles Almanacke_, 1618, p. 6, an allusion
to this worthy,--'Since the _German fencer_ cudgell'd most of our
English fencers, now about 5 moneths past.'
[196] It is hardly necessary to remind the reader that 'bastard' was the
name of a sweet Spanish wine.
[197] 'Goll'--A cant expression for 'hand': it is found continually in
our old writers.
[198] The words 'Some scurvy thing, I warrant' should no doubt be given
to Cornego.
[199] The conversation between Onaelia and the Poet very closely
resembles, in parts, _Character_ 5 of John Day's _Parliament of Bees_.
[200] 4to lanch.
[201] 'The Hanging Tune' i.e. the tune of 'Fortune my Foe,' to which
were usually sung ballads relating to murders. The music of 'Fortune my
Foe,' is given in Mr. Chappell's 'Popular Music of the Olden Time'; and
the words may be seen in the 'Bayford Ballads' (edited by Mr. Ebsworth,
our greatest master of ballad-lore).
[202] Cf. Dekker's _Match me in London_ (Dramatic Works, iv. 180)--
'I doe speake _English_
When I'de move pittie; when dissemble, _Irish_;
_Dutch_ when I reele; and tho I feed on scalions
_If I should brag Gentility I'de gabble Welch_.'
[203] Cf. Day's _Parliament of Bees_, Character 4.
[204] 'Estridge' is the common form of 'ostrich' among the Elizabethans
(I Henry IV., iv. 1, &c).
[205] "Poire d'angoisse. _A choke-Peare; or a wild soure Peare_."
Cotgrave.
[206] 4to. Moble.
[207] Quy. head.
[208] "Prick-song"--"harmony written or pricked down, in opposition to
plain-song, where the descant rested with the will of the singer."
Chappell's _Popular Music_, &c., I. 51.
[209] The keys of the 'virginal' were called 'Jacks.' For a description
of the 'virginal' see Mr. Chappell's _Popular Music_, &c. I, 103.
[210] 'Coranta' i.e. curranto, news-sheet: Ben Jonson's 'Staple of News'
gives us a good notion of the absurdities that used to be circulated.
[211] 'Linstocke' (or, more correctly, 'lint-stock')--a stick for
holding a gunner's match.
[212] Toot--to pry into: 'tooter' was formerly the name for a 'tout'
(vid. Todd's Johnson).
[213] 'Aphorisme. _An Aphorisme (or generall rule in Physicke)_.'
Cotgrave.
[214] 4to. creaking.
[215] Rosemary was used at marriages and funerals.
[216] Day dedicates his _Humour out of Breath_ to 'Signeor Nobody':
'Signeor No,' the shorter form, is not unfrequently found (e.g. _Ile of
Guls_, p. 59--my reprint). To whatever advantage _No_ may have appeared
on the stage, he certainly is a pitiful object in print.
[217] _Baltazar's_ notions of Geography are vague. A most interesting
account of Bantam, the capital of Java, may be seen in Vol. v. of
Hakluyt's 'Collection of early Voyages,' ed. 1812. It occurs in the
_Description of a Voyage made by certain Ships of Holland to the East
Indies &c. ... Translated out of Dutch into English by W.P. London_.
1589. 'The towne,' we are told, 'is not built with streetes nor the
houses placed in order, but very foule, lying full of filthy water,
which men must passe through or leap over for they have no bridges.'
For the people--'it is a very lying and theevish kind of people, not
in any sort to be trusted.'
[218] The 'magical weed' I take to be hemlock; cf. Ben Jonson's _Masque
of Queens_--
'And I have been plucking, plants among,
Hemlock, henbane, adders-tongue
Night-shade, moon-wort, libbard's bane
And twice, by the dogs, was like to be ta'en.'
[219] The poisoned 'Spanish fig' acquired considerable notoriety among
the early Dramatists: cf. Webster, _White_ Devil (p. 30, ed. Dyce,
1857.) 'I do look now for a _Spanish fig_ or an Italian salad daily':
Dekker. (iv. 213, Pearson) 'Now doe I looke for a fig': whether Pistol's
allusion (Henry V, iii. 6) is to the poisoned fig may be doubted.